Ring of FireCentral Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupted...

Ring of Fire

Central Mexico’s Popocatepetl volcano erupted with a plume of ash and sulfur that soared nearly two miles into the sky.

U.S. vulcanologists in Alaska rushed seismic monitoring equipment to the slopes of Akutan volcano after the Aleutian Islands mountain began to rumble with nearly constant tremors. Such quakes often precede an explosive eruption.

Scientists monitoring the ocean 95 miles off the coast of Oregon have detected a volcano spewing magma onto the seabed.

The unnamed volcano, along the Gorda Ridge seismic zone, has probably been active for a long time, and poses no danger to shipping or coastal communities.

Tropical Storms

Tropical cyclones Kristy and Ethel moved ashore over remote areas of northern Australia. Cyclones Zaka and Atu formed off the north coast of New Caledonia and took almost identical courses across the open waters of the South Fiji Basin.

Earthquakes

A powerful temblor damaged homes in China’s remote Xinjiang Autonomous Region, near the border with Mongolia. The quake’s epicenter was in the sparsely populated Altay Mountains.

Earth movements were also felt in extreme northern Japan, Indonesia’s Biak Island aftershock zone, central Peru and southern Alaska.

Deforestation Prediction

Conservationists warned that the world’s major forests could be largely gone within 50 years unless comperhensive measures are taken now. The grim prediction was made at the outset of a 10- day meeting of the World Wide Fund for Nature in Geneva. Fund director, Claude Martin said that 85% of the world’s forested areas are endangered, along with the plants and animals that depend on them.

Electrical Storms

Three people, including an 11- year- old, were struck and killed by powerful lightning after they sought refuge from a storm under a tree near the Argentine city of Rosario. The bolt was so strong that when it struck the 100- foot- high eucalyptus tree, it incinerated the three victims and melted their watches and necklaces, police reported.

Northwestern Cambodia was lashed by powerful thunderstorms that killed two people and destroyed or damaged several homes in the country’s second- largest city. Reports said the victims died after being hit by flying debris.

Additional Sources: Australian Bureau of Meteorology, U.S. Climate Analysis Center, U.S. Earthquake Information Center, Fiji Weather Bureau and the United Nations World Meterological Organization.